By Juan Montoya
It has been a long time in coming, but now elected officials in the three biggest public entities are questioning the use of so-called "buy boards" to make purchase services and materials.
Just recently during the meeting of the City of Brownsville Commission, commissioner Ben Neece questioned Purchasing Director Robert Luna over his recommendation that the city purchase a new 2018 Ford F-Series Medium Duty Truck with 80’ Working Height Bucket Attachment to replace the unit 512-222 1998 Ford F250 crew cab 4X4 Bucket Truck used for electrical repairs, parks maintenance, tree trimming etc.
Luna said that the Brownsville Parks and Recreation Department and Purchasing Department were in agreement to award purchase to the qualified and responsive company Silsbee Ford Inc., located in Silsbee, Texas, an active participant of the GOODBUY Cooperative in the amount of $178,799.20.
But when Neece questioned Luna on why the city was going to spend $178,800 to buy a truck from a vendor in Silsbee when local dealers could provide the same even if the city exercised its right to buy locally within a five-percent price increase so it could buy locally, Luna said that the department had found the truck in the GoodBuy Purchasing program, another buy board.
It didn't help that Luna admitted that although the action item to purchase the truck had been placed on Item 14, and the resolution to join the GoodBuy cooperative which would authorize the city to enter into the cooperative program was placed on Item 17, three items down on the agenda. What made it worse was that Luna admitted that he had already entered into negotiations with GoodBuy representatives before he was authorized by the commission to join their purchasing program.
So-called "buy boards," or cooperative purchasing associations, have increasingly gotten a bigger share of the public money pie to the detriment, some say, of local vendors who don't belong to those associations but who – unlike most of the vendors who are members of these boards – pay taxes here and hire local residents.
We remember that Cameron County Precinct 3 Commissioner David Garza asked County Purchasing Agent Mike Forbes why the county was recommending that a purchase of vehicles for the Sheriff's Department to a firm from Ft. Worth when there were plenty of car dealers in Cameron County that could fill the order.
"We got the best price we could find on our list of purchasing cooperatives and this was the lowest," Forbes replied.
"And were any local dealers allowed to bid?," Garza pressed Forbes.
"Only those who belong to the co-ops," Forbes said.
After a lengthy discussion, it was revealed that there were, indeed, local dealers who could compete with the vendors on the various buy boards and provide the vehicles for the sheriff's department at the same, or lower price. Although Forbes protested that the vehicles offered by the buy board vendors included light turrets, he conceded that those could be installed by local dealers who could also deliver the vehicles in a shorter time.
Even adding the time necessary to issue a new call for bids and to recommend a vendor, the vehicles would still be delivered in the same time an outside vendor associate with the buy board would.
And when she was on the board of trustees of the Brownsville Independent School District, Catalina Presas-Garcia also asked the administrators of the district's Purchasing Dept. why it was that they were recommending the purchase of vehicles from vendors on the buy boards who weren't from within the area, hired local people, and paid taxes.
When Presas-Garcia told them that she had inquired from local dealers who were not dues-paying members of the buy board and had been told they could provide the vehicles in less time and at a lower price, the other board members agreed with her and asked the purchasing department to reissue the bids so that local vendors could have a chance to bid and keep the money locally.
Critics of the program say that while buy boards may sometimes provide governmental entities with a list of objects offered by their vendors at a good price, and that they do away with the need to issue bids and RFPs (Requests for Proposals) for services, this in effect bypasses the bid and procurement process and cuts out local vendors who are not dues-paying members of the various buy boards.
"This removes the decision on where to spend the city, county or school district monies from the board members or commissioners and deprives many local vendors who pay taxes and hire local people," said a former BISD trustee. "The money ends up going to vendors who don;t leave here and the only ones who profit are the buy board associations and their representatives who get to pocket a commission."
13 comments:
Why buy a bucket truck that would cost the tax payers money, when the city could work up a deal with PUB and use it when needed. They are not going to use it every day. They have many a bucket truck in their fleed, after all PUB belongs to the city of Brownsville. There are many other things that are under handed.
Sr Neece LO felicito por el trabajo que usted esta haciendo si quiere encontrar chingos de corrupcion pidale al sr Luna los contratos que da el a cienrtos contratistas los de 35,000 dlls para abajo, y vera que en la mayoria hay 'CHANGE ORDERS' EN ESTOS CONTRATOS HAY MOCHE PARA EL SR CABLER Y PARA EL DEBERIAN DE HACER UNA AUDITORIA A FONDO EN ESE DEPARTAMENTO Y VERA USTED QUE VA ENCONTRAR MUCHA 'CORRUPCION. otra vez lo felicito y no pare y acabe con Cabler y sus 40 ladrones
Good point 🤔 @5:32
Nickels and dimes
Luna ya no esta el rata de Cabler para defenderte y los assistentes del gordo Cabler te van a demandar que contestes todas las tranzas que hiciste tu y los corruptos de los depts health,public works parks todos ustedes deben de traer panales extras porque deben de andar bien CAGADOS ya no hay nadie que les tapen todas las tranzas que hicieron
Ben goes after crooked bureaucrats buried deep inside city hall so they squeal to BWC that Ben should not be a commissioner because he doesn't live in Brownsville. Rats gnawing each other's tails.
Ask Cesar Lopez how that works. Is he not working for TASB buy board or something like that?
Pocket=lining for recommendations?
Another example of "that's the way we have always done it". It is also an example of another failure by the City Manager's office. It is a time for a new city manager that is trained as a city manager, not just an ex-cop who knows where all the skeletons are hidden and is loyal to the Mayor and city commission. If Ben Neece knows this, why doesn't Luna. Time to get city employees who can think outside the box and don't live on kickbacks or potential kickbacks. We have dealerships here and we should start a new purchasing policy...."Buy Brownsville", or "Buy Cameron County".
Finds out who has recently bought a car or is buying a car from silisbee in the near future
Aqui ay gato enserrado!!!
Luna is one of the biggest tranzas in the City. Hope he goes down with Cabler the idiot!
Make the VALLEY GREAT AGAIN.
your forgot that BISD also bought Valco through a purchasing coop
thought you loved barbacoagate too much to forget it, Juanito
The purpose of the Buyboards are for emergency use only i.e. during a hurricane or catastrophic situations and dont have the time to go out for bids. It's not to eliminate the Bidding Process or bypass the bidding process.
Cesar Lopez, Joe Rodriguez, Laura Perez, Carlos Elizondo and Zendejas are a bunch of corrupt shithead!
They are abusing the BuyBoard purchases to fill their pockets, the more the district buys from the BuyBoard the bigger the commission is for Cesar Lopez and kickbacks for the rest. To show how disgusting and shameless they are they increased the purchases from $25,000 to $500,000 without Board approval and violating district's policy. If they haven't already chsnged the policy to circumvent their pathetic greed!
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